a baseball card celebration of the dodgers and the infield of my youth.

24 October 2013

the 1978 topps dodgers who were also 1986 topps dodgers. and cubs. and padres. etcetera, etcetera - fielder edition

i kicked off the 1986 installment of the 'evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers' yesterday with the burt hooton final tribute. it's a shame that hooton's last card had him in a rangers' uniform instead of dodger blue. unfortunately, there weren't too many dodgers left in 1986 from the 1978 team. but, there were still a few of them in addition to hooton, wearing other teams' uniforms. here are the fielders who remained from that group of 27 players featured by topps as dodgers in 1978.

ron cey was in his fourth year with the cubs in 1986.

he was 38 and appeared in only 97 games - that was the first time he had seen action in less than 100 games since 1972, if you ignore the strike-shortened season of 1981. cey hit .273 with 13 homers and 36 rbi in 1986, with the highlight of his season likely being career home run 300.

like cey, steve garvey was in year 4 with the padres in 1986.

garvey had another consecutive game streak going in 1986 - he was up to around 300 straight before he missed a handful in september of '86. he hit .255 in a total of 155 games, with 21 homers (his highest total since 1980) and 81 rbi. garvey's big milestone achievement in 1986 was his 2500th career hit.

bill russell was still a dodger, of course, in 1986.

in addition to his regular card, ropes got to grace the 'dodgers leaders' card

with a nice photo from vero beach. russell didn't show up anywhere on the back however, as the dodgers' offensive leaders from 1985 were mike marshall, mariano duncan, and of course, pedro guerrero. his appearance is based on his tenure with the club, as these cards acknowledged the 'dean' of each team. in russell's case, it wasn't close - he had been with the team since june of 1970. back to 1986 - russell appeared in 105 games that year which was up from the two previous seasons. he hit .250 and played more outfield than shortstop for the first time since 1971, and managed to pass the 1900 hit mark along the way. 1986 wound up being russell's final year as a major league player.

davey lopes wasn't done, however. he spent the first part of 1986 with the cubs

but was dealt to the houston astros during the season. unfortunately, topps did not include the 40-year old in the 1986 topps traded set. so, you have a davey lopes card that should have been to look forward to in the near future! on the field, lopes hit .275 on the season with 25 steals and 49 runs scored. he surpassed both 1000 runs scored for his career and the 150 career home run milestone in 1986.

lee lacy remained the orioles' primary right fielder in 1986

he played in 130 games and had a pretty decent season. he hit .287 with 11 home runs and 47 rbi. he also set a career high with 77 runs scored. lacy didn't achieve any major career milestones in 1986, but he did hit three home runs in a single game on june 8th against the yankees. not bad for a 38-year old!

dusty baker finished up his career in 1986 with the a's

baker didn't have any multi-homer games like lacy, but it is interesting that all four of his long balls in 1986 came at the expense of the milwaukee brewers - two courtesy of ted higuera. baker appeared in 83 games over the course of the season and finished his career 19 hits shy of 2000.

steve yeager graced a card as a dodger for the last time in 1986

even though he had been traded to the mariners in december of 1985. unlike lopes, topps put yeager on the traded set checklist

yeager appeared in 50 games for the mariners, catching in 49 of them. in his final big league season, yeager threw out 37% (14 of 38) of would be base stealers who ran against him. he also hit the last two home runs of his career, and like baker, half of them came off of ted higuera.

so, that does it for the position players - the pitchers are coming up next...

let's trade

click it - you will be rewarded! for trading, not clicking.

let's trade, part 2

i collect dodgers cards, any and all cards featuring steve garvey, ron cey, dave lopes or bill russell, all topps cards of the players who were featured in the 1978 topps set as dodgers, cards featuring dodger stadium, o-pee-chee variations, cards showing memorial patches and/or armbands, and cards showing the double play turn at second base. i am also currently working on my 1971 topps set. i have a lot of cards to trade!